what are the practical steps to speak english fluently

Hi every one,, I would like to ask a question,,What are the practical steps to speak english fluently and how can i overcome hestiation,,i often forget a lot of words while i speak ,, i wish to speak englisg without thinking!!!!please please please give me practical ways i can follow not in genera,,,,,,,,,,,Thank you

Killer Sat Dec 17, 2005 9:13 am GMT

<i often forget a lot of words while i speak>

Increase your vocabulary

Leena Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:47 am GMT

thank u killer for your reply but i always forget vocabulary and how to form right sentence

Mxsmanic Sat Dec 17, 2005 11:24 pm GMT

Practice makes perfect, in every respect.

Learning and using vocabulary is important. A great deal can be communicated by simply using the right words alone, even with very bad grammar. Basic grammar makes communication a lot more precise and efficient. Good pronunciation is necessary if you intend to speak. Lots of listening practice is necessary if you wish to understand the spoken language. Lots of reading helps reading comprehension. Writing practice is useful, also, but only if you have a way of correcting your writing.

Laura Braun Sun Dec 18, 2005 4:10 am GMT

While I was student we were learning russian at school. I don't use russian and it becomes 'dead' language for me. I can understand for example for what russians talk, but the only words which comes to my mind are not in russian, but in english. If you don't use language you can easily forget it.
How to become fluent? First idea is to listen . If you have good ears you can 'hear' the language.There is a certain melody in english. So the best examle to become fluent is to listen. Then you can speak as an immitator. Just repeat what you heard.

leena Sun Dec 18, 2005 11:20 am GMT

MXsmantic
even if i made a lot of mistakes??i try to memorize a lot of vocabulary but they all gone out of my mind, so do i have to concentrate on grammar this time??..You know what!!i spend abt 2 hours a day in reading and half an hour in listening to anything music or tv show or movie..is that enough or i need more??

leena Sun Dec 18, 2005 11:25 am GMT

Laura Braun
tell me exactly what you mean by using language! How can i use it?please give me examples i can follow..I have to repeat what i hear? sorry Laura abt my silly questions..when i repeat do i have to repeat 10 to 20 times or what?

Pete Sun Dec 18, 2005 11:50 am GMT

Yes, you have to do so. I'll write here what I did to be fluent in English.

Firstly, STUDY GRAMMAR. You need to have a good grounding on English grammar, that helps a lot. It's easier to understand someone when they use correct grammar.

Second, WRITTING. You have to practise a lot on writing irregular verbs, so you can remember them, write them 10, 20, 50, 100 times if necessary. Try to write little texts, about your dalily life. Use the new-learnt verbs and words as often as possible. Then...

Third, SPEAK. No writing is useful if you don't repeat. Ask an English Speaker or your teachers to say the words which are new to you. Then at home, repeat the words you wrote. Again, you have to do it 10, 20, 1000 times if it's required.

Fourth, LISTEN AND READ. Vocabulary is very important, the more words you know, the more easy talking becomes. So rent any film you like, with actors or actresses that you like, you know, people which has a voice or an English which in your opinion is nice. The film HAS to be in English. MAKE SURE IT'S IN ENGLISH AND IT HAS ENGLISH SUBTITLES. So watch the film, if you find it difficult (which is perfectly normal, don't feel down), just switch on the English subtitles, so that you can listen and if you don't understand watch the subtitles to read what they're saying. WATCH THE FILM AS MANY TIMES AS POSSIBLE 1 million times if necessary, and then REPEAT THE VOICE AND DIALOGUES OF THE PEOPLE IN THE MOVIE, REPEAT AS MANY TIMES AS YOU CAN!!
Buy books in English and in your free time, go and read them. It's a good way and you kill to pigeons with one stone, you have a good time reading but still learning and practising English.

At first I would recommend movies where they don't speak to fast, so you don't get scared. At the beginning I would recommend TITANIC or INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE. Then as you can move onto something a little bit difficult like AMERICAN PIE, and finally shits like SCARY MOVIE or stuff like that. Well, I used american films to practise. Unfortunately, when I was studying English in Peru I could not get anything but American films, but some of them are really good. At least for practising.

And about books, to start with I would recommend THE KNIGHT IN RUSTY ARMOR by ROBERT FISHER, it's great. A very beautiful story, and nice vocabulary. And then you can continue with HARRY POTTER's books, LORD OF THE RINGS' books or things like that.

I hope this was helpfull

Pete

Laura Braun Sun Dec 18, 2005 9:32 pm GMT

Learning of grammar is rather boring. You are learning the same sentences and yoou have not feeling to laguage you can make mistakes. But anyway you have to get to know grammar otherwise you can make mistakes, you have to have good vocabulary. How to provide such vocabulary. Start with simple articles. read it once and try to get the point. Then look at words which you don't know. Then translate them and then you can check if you know them. I was doing that everywhere, by the time that you are sure that you know these words. Then you got another article.... This is first steps.
I'm speaking how to become fluent. Get a tape with common converstion, the things which people usually talk in office, on the telephone, or when they talk about some stories. Then you have to listen them more then once. Try to understand for what they are talking about. May be at first it cound sound like terra incognita. (somethng which you cannot understand). Don't get upset. Sometimes it took time. This is only an example. In fact I cannot claim that I'm fluent, but at least I can talk in english, I can explain what I mean, and when I lose my address I can ask someone 'Excuse me, could you help me to find out this street or that place'?

Laura Braun Sun Dec 18, 2005 9:40 pm GMT

Why I suggest tapes, but not movies. These tapes which I borrowed were from british council. They were rather good. I heard and I read. I repeat them until I get to know them by heart. This is already speaking language which is with good grammar construction and good pronounciation, which is british english.

Samson Mon Dec 19, 2005 4:55 am GMT

<i try to memorize a lot of vocabulary >

Vocabulary means all the words you know or all the words a language has. Make sure you understand the meanings of your vocabulary.

By the way, where are you from? I suspect that you are from Hong Kong or China.

Leena Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:43 am GMT

pete
thank you for all your great practical advises.
i really get bored of grammar especially the rules that are related to present perfect past perfect present or past perfect continuous!! all of them are difficult and hard to understand..I really cant make difference between saying i was doing and i have been doing something,this is an example of the dificulties i always face
i dont write much, i tried once but then i stopped but i will try to do this step seriously.
i always make a lot of copies but quickly disappear
when i watch any movie i usually write all the english subtitles in a note and the i try to repeate every sentence many times and finally i listen to
all dialouges once again but i dont repeat with them.is this good?
i love to bye english magaziens abt beauty and music i dont like books
tell me about your opinion in all these things!!!

Leena Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:56 am GMT

Laura Braun
thank u again,
as i said grammar is too much boring
i use a way in speaking which is translating my native language into english but this is not a lot.Is it helpful way or i must stop it????

Leena Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:58 am GMT

yeah vocabulary is important but fast to be forgotton!!!
i am from Saudi Arabia by the way

Pete Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:55 pm GMT

<<when i watch any movie i usually write all the english subtitles in a note and the i try to repeate every sentence many times and finally i listen to
all dialouges once again but i dont repeat with them.is this good? >>

That's a good method, writing the subtitles. And I agree with that, repeating as the people in the movie speak might be a bit confusing. In fact it would only lead you to a chaos, you'll always found they speak faster than you. So the most sensible thing to do, is listening to them, then stop the film for a second so you can repeat and try to imitate details like pronunciation, entonation, etc. Then when you've finished try to repeat it without watching the film. The day when you memorise all the film will come, (I know it sounds a bit crazy but I did so!) when that happens you can focus on things like intonation and accent features.

<<i love to bye english magaziens abt beauty and music i dont like books>>

Yeah magazines are nice, and songs are good as well. However, the thing about songs is that they don't always show standard grammar. Singers usually say things so the song sounds nice, they don't care about grammar. I would recommend you to stick to your magazines. And try to get some more material, like newspapers.